Captcha

I was reading my soup of internet randomness the other day and came across an article about CAPTCHA - the little squiggly letters that help websites determine your humanness. Like pretty much everyone else in the world, I assumed them to be a necessary evil - leaning a little more to evil. But, I had no idea the real purpose and benefit.

As someone who really marvels at magnitude of human creative and intellectual production, that someone (or ones) had the idea for this is pretty freakin' awesome. The squiggly letters used in reCAPTCHA are actually contributing to the betterment of the whole human race. All those annoyingly difficult to decipher letters are really parts of old manuscripts that you are helping to digitize. 200 million of these are solved each day contributing way more man hours than any organization could conceivably as they attempt to digitize and preserve books that were written before the digital era. Computers often have difficulty discerning old typefaces and handwriting while your human eye does not. Two birds, one stone and preservation for posterity!

Language Lessons

One of the reasons why I chose my current apartment is for the potential improvement in my learning Vietnamese. The (I think they are nannies to the families in the building) have decided to come and get English help while helping me with Vietnamese. So far, I think it's working. I know more than some of the people who have been here for a year. They also take the time to help with me pronounce things well. I can't even tell you how difficult it is to say things. My ears are also not attuned to the tones yet. Am getting better at parroting, but not quite deciphering the relationship of the sounds to the spellings.

I feel a bit bad for the ladies because English is so arbitrary in writing and pronunciation. Just at Vietnamese has all these tones I have no hopes of really pronouncing correctly, English has lots of consonant sounds they have difficulty with. One of the ladies is from the north of the country and one from the south. I can pick up the regional differences a bit. It seems that the north doesn't have an "f" sound and she has such a hard time. She can seems to only produce a "p".

Unlike in English, where you can puzzle out a wonky pronunciation, the Vietnamese tones aren't so forgiving. Miss (as in girl) and no are spelled the same but with an accent over the vowel to denote radically different pronunciation. Slow and steady . . .

1st Post Viet Nam!

Been a couple of years of adventure and pure laziness in updating this blog. Am turning over a new leaf (so many leaves have been turned to no avail) and will attempt to post regularly.

Today, I went to Binh Thanh market - the place for touristy kitsch in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Had a nice time walking around trying to avoid buying stuff. It was my first time there and my eyes were repeatedly caught by shiny, shiny pretty things. It's also a market that locals use, mostly for foodstuff. I bargained this lady down to 50% and she could not wait to see the back of me. I kinda felt bad. A nice thing about this market is that they have people with fixed prices as well. I am guessing that these are the official government employees as they wear uniforms. After a while, it was a relief to go to them since I would have to haggle over prices. Years in the states and Romania have atrophied my bargaining muscles. Gotta give them a work out.

I returned home and went to a local restaurant to eat (almost everything is open air). I seriously have five people come to (ostensively) help me order (they weren't much help). Though, I think it was more likely to stare at the foreigner and practice their English. They kept coming back to try and chat. I was just trying to eat my meal and read my book. Sometimes it is really hard work. One asked me if I was delicious. I didn't want to laugh and make a lewd comment. After I figured out the pronunciation, I realized she was asking after the enjoyment of the meal.

Fun times. I have got to find some language courses right quick.

hanging with the fam

I just had a crazy fantastic time at my uncle's 70th birthday party. All of my grandma's 7 kids were there, some traveling from all over the country to visit. My uncle was really surprised and actually cried - really sweet to see. The really excellent part was that I hadn't seen some of them in 8 years or so. A fun time was had by all, laughing and dancing. Laughing is one of the things that my family does best. It's really funny to see these guys in their 50's and 60's interacting with each other. It seems as though the dynamic hasn't changed since they were little kids. I saw and reconnected with some of my cousins around my age who seem like really awesome people. People that I would actually like to hang out with, that I would be friends with if we met on the street.

I kinda feel bad

For the last couple of days, there has been a wake in my building. An old dude one floor down from me died recently. I assume they buried him today as the people and the casket lid that was in the hallway are gone. I see the daughter (?) and she is crying and I don't know what to say. How do I acknowledge her - good morning?

But the real reason why I feel bad is that I threatened him. I am really really sorry now that I did it. But it was two in the morning and he was blasting the manele - imagine hip-hop, techno, and Arabian music mixed. I went down in my pjs and asked them nicely to turn the music down. An hour later it was still blasting. I went down again and this time he touched my hair (the 'fro was in full effect). Now three in the morning, with me trying to get some sleep before I go to work the next day, is not the time to reach out and touch me. He got all hostile after I told him not to touch me and started yelling. I told them (the rest of the family was there) I would call the cops about the music. I left to try and sleep and the music played on and on.

Now, I feel like the daughter gives me the evil eye everytime I see her.

learning to drive

Time is flying and as always, I can only manage to get my butt in gear under pressure. It's amazing how many useful things one finds out when it's too late to be useful. Lots of that going on. Am always like - damn! wish I knew that earlier. But alas, one just has to make do.

As always, I realize how much of my home that I haven't seen while living here. So, I am attempting to get off my duff and prepare for the farewell tour of Romania. There is so much of the country to see that I can't get to by bus or train, so I have started driving lessons. Plus, I finally realized that driving a stick-shift is a good skill to have. This is the one and ONLY time my mother was right. I still refuse to take the rest of her advice.

Driving in Bucharest is scary. There are rules, the driving instructor was attempting to tell me, but they don't make sense. People and cars still seem to come out of nowhere. on my first outing, I was a bit scared that I would hit a pedestrian, but all was well. Though there are lots of things for my incredibly uncoordinated body to remember, I feel like I'm getting the hang of it.

Missing it already

Wow, it's been a while.

Today I went on a school trip to Campina and it was amazing. Easter and this trip have helped me to see parts of Romania that I haven't before and now my heart is breaking a bit. This is such a beautiful country and I have seen lots of it but there is so much more to see and I've so little time left to see it.

We drove to Doftanea Valley and showed the kids the river and how it changes with height, sedimentary rocks and tectonic uplift, and a hydrolectric dam. We then picnicked on the banks of the lake. The kids played in the water, climbed trees, and just had fun. The area is so lovely with traditional architecture and pastoral farming. Heart singingly beautiful.

It was a crazy awesome Saturday.

monsters of grace

I've been listening to Philip Glass alot lately, the old stuff that I have and things I've never heard before. Some of it is crazy amazing. I remember seeing Monsters of Grace way back in 98/99 when he came to G-ville.

Hmmm. I hadn't heard it since that performance and I thought, let me have another listen. Now I realize that sometimes the memory of something is sometimes way better than the experience, especially when it had grown kinda hazy. Listening to it brought it all back.I recall hating the English opera part. I now realize that my observation then was pretty sound. Yeah, some things just don't so sound good when you can understand what they're saying. If it were in another language or if they enunciated a little less carefully, I would never have known the levels of cheese that Philip Glass could plumb. We're talking Poisonesque. Am gonna stick to the stuff without words.

sleep deprived

i came home saturday nite so i could have a day of rest before heading back to work. except i couldnt sleep on saturday so i slept late of sunday so i couldnt sleep sunday nite and got 2 hours of sleep.

i totally oversleep and am a zombie at work. finally the students leave and i have survived the purgatory of the neverending staff meeting. I decide to be good and buy nutritious food for the coming week. only to realize - while packing the groceries - that i left my house keys at work. something i never ever do. me brain no work.

more unbelievable beauty

today i did an organized tour which was pretty good. i mean i had to meet the group crazy early and was the last one to get on the bus.

first stop we went to Siena, home of burnt. It's an old medieval town full of old buildings and hills and stuff - really pretty. An apparently really famous for banking - having the oldest working bank (as in company) in the world. those dudes did something right.

then we went to an organic farm\vineyard for lunch which was really tasty. the farm was located on a hill with the most gorgeous views of the surrounding hills and valleys. I felt like maybe is should become an organic farmer - but then reality stepped in and i realized that I don't really like to work. I think I would just like the farm with the views and someone making that organic olive oil and wine for me.

We went go San Gimignano, a small walled town with absolutely no new buildings in it. I strolled through the streets with some newly made friends.

Then we had a beautiful drive up and own the hills to get to Pisa. I saw the tower and I took some wonky pictures but this time the wonkiness isn't my fault. apparently everything tilts there. that's what you get building on sandy soil without proper foundations - wonky pictures.